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HOW TO DISCONNECT FROM SOCIAL MEDIA BUT STAY CONNECTED TO THE WORLD


mona

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HOW TO DISCONNECT FROM SOCIAL MEDIA

BUT

STAY CONNECTED TO THE WORLD

:rolleyes:

 

o1vzyrofj7ff8bxzl7gb.jpg

 

 

Social media is terrible, and social media is amazing. It inundates us with panic-inducing news and rage-inducing hot takes; it also keeps us connected to our friends, professional circles, and news from around the world. But if you try to drink straight from the fire hose, you’re going to drown—or get your head blasted pretty hard. The key is figuring out what social media is good for—for you—and then getting other things that you need from somewhere else.

 

I personally find Twitter terrible for news. Information is scattered and often incorrect, and it usually comes with a lot of panic —“THIS ISN’T NORMAL” and the like, as if I won’t know things are bad unless I’m shouted at.

 

When social media is our only news source — or source for updates from our friends, or for links to good essays to read — it becomes really hard to take a break. You can use Freedom to block Twitter from your phone until 10am (that’s a bonus hack, by the way; I do that and it’s great), but if Twitter is the only place you get news, you may spend your morning worrying about what breaking news you’re missing out on — not to mention lacking articles to browse on the train in to work.

 

It’s important that your social media feeds work for you. On Facebook, you can unfollow, unfriend, and snooze to get inflammatory news-sharers out of your feed. On Twitter, you can mute keywords and accounts. You can also use Tweetdeck to follow whittled-down lists instead of your entire feed — when you don’t want to drown in the endless feed, but want to keep up with your actual friends or favorite cute animals, you can just do that.

 

Once you’ve broken your morning Twitter habit, or scrubbed your feed of everyone but your friends and cute animals—or whatever works for you—here’s how to keep up with the world in a way that’ll make you feel a little less batty.

 

 

RSS Feeds

 

Young ’uns, pull up a chair. Back before the endless scroll of the social media feed, one way we got our electronic news was via RSS readers, helpful tools that aggregated the feeds of our favorite sites and blogs, listing new articles so we could browse and determine what we wanted to read. (And, unlike social media feeds, an RSS reader’s feed had a blessed end.) The best and most beautiful RSS reader is no longer with us (RIP Google Reader), but others still exist. Try Feedly or Inoreader. You’ll have to spend some time importing the sites you want to follow, but once you do you’ll have an easy list of headlines to browse whenever you like. You can make separate lists for national news, essays, blogs, or publications in your own field. You can keep up with as little or as much as you like. And it won’t be interspersed with the million other things screaming for your attention on social media.


Push Alerts

 

I know this sounds counterintuitive, but I actually found that signing up for push alerts for breaking news made opening Twitter much less anxiety-inducing for me. Instead of scrolling my feed wondering what fresh hell I was about to encounter, I knew that I’d get a push alert on my phone each time a new fresh portal to hell opened up.

 


Newsletters

 

If Tinyletters are the new blogs, then why not get your news sent straight to your inbox, too? You can get the latest headlines from your newspaper of choice, or a weekly tour of an obscure field of interest curated by an expert in said field. Some that come highly recommended: Vox Sentences, The Washington Post’s Daily 202, No Complaints, The Ann Friedman Weekly. (If you’ve got some you love, please recommend them in the comments!)

 


Good Old-Fashioned Newspapers

 

Go to their website and browse some headlines! Maybe pay for an online subscription to get behind the paywall (and support their work). I know it sounds nuts, but that’s where the news is, and when you go beyond the headlines and read a few articles, without a feed’s worth of other posts grappling for your eyes, you’ll find that the news can be surprisingly informative. Who knew!

 


Talk to Friends — Online is Fine

 

Of course, social media isn’t only about news and reading material—it’s also a way we stay connected to our friends. Social contact on social media can feel thin, but it’s not insignificant, and if you don’t fill the void, you’ll have, well, a void. If you’re pulling back from your feeds, take advantage of the other ways technology lets us chat with our friends: gchat, Slack, text messages, whatever it takes. (Please do not harangue me for being a millennial in the comments.)

 

 

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Ive never been too social so this is not a problem for me but as for my kids, WOW, every God damn thing they do in life is posted to FB or the like! I just dont understand it! Am I old, smart or both? I have no issue staying connected without being connected! Too bad the kids of today  zombies I see in the wild dont have a clue. They are puppets to/for the machine! I laugh and grieve in the same instance. 

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35 minutes ago, ZaG said:

..... as for my kids, WOW, every God damn thing they do in life is posted to FB or the like !

(...)

Too bad the kids of today  zombies I see in the wild dont have a clue. They are puppets to/for the machine! 

 

Having in mind all new (and growing) invigilation technics + your (very accurate !) claim --> the future of  mankind doesn't look bright....

 

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1 hour ago, mona said:

 

( ... ) the future of  mankind doesn't look bright....

 

 

This future is now, unfortunately...

 

https://cdn.skoften.net/images/59984/picdump_1011_57__800.jpg

 

- not my family, but an example -

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1 hour ago, el_espaniol said:

Emmmh...Only social media I use is whatsap...for strictly communication use.:yes:...

No fb, insta, etc...

Whatsapp is fb. Even if u don't have a fb ac or had deleted, fb have created your account with all your collective info from WhatsApp ac and all info from its linkages with third-party, sensors and more. All they are waiting for u to create an ac in fb from ur end. When u do, you'll know within few hours that my words became reality. Also, even if u don't create ac and if someone used ur email/number/name/ur locality to create fb account, that too would be the same as what I mentioned.

Forgot to say, read eula, terms, privacy policy and sharing info on whatsapp and fb app+site

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  • 1 month later...

I honestly think social media is disgusting its taken the interaction out of humanity, children dont know how to act in social environments they cant even look people in the face, always head down when talking everyone is a bag of nerves, everyone is "depressed" people are so weak now days and complain about everything it never used to be like that until social media came, everyone thinks they have a right to everything and are owed the world.

 

Its become a platform for people to front and show a fake life they have made up, then share it every second on various platforms so everyone can see, very odd behaviour...

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I left farcebook about 6 months ago. didn't use twitter.

Social media is toxic, really toxic. To families, friends and especially to you, yourself, if you use it.

It takes literal time off your life. Is it worth the arguing and fighting on there?

Is social media a benefit to life, yes.

Are we, as a people, ready to make effective use of such technology?

I really don't think we are. Too weak, emotion led, fallible,gullible, stupid!

I detest social media.

ruined the damn internet.

 

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On ‎07‎/‎04‎/‎2018 at 11:51 AM, UpGrade said:

I honestly think social media is disgusting its taken the interaction out of humanity, children dont know how to act in social environments they cant even look people in the face, always head down when talking everyone is a bag of nerves, everyone is "depressed" people are so weak now days and complain about everything it never used to be like that until social media came, everyone thinks they have a right to everything and are owed the world.

 

Its become a platform for people to front and show a fake life they have made up, then share it every second on various platforms so everyone can see, very odd behaviour...

You're right

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Go out a lot, say hi to strangers, initiate conversation with people in your neighborhood, gym, cafe, school run, etc.

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  • 1 month later...

I think you can,t get the latest news also verified news without Social Media because NewsPapers are not true in News.

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  • 1 month later...
On 2/15/2018 at 3:15 PM, ZaG said:

Ive never been too social so this is not a problem for me but as for my kids, WOW, every God damn thing they do in life is posted to FB or the like! I just dont understand it! Am I old, smart or both? I have no issue staying connected without being connected! Too bad the kids of today  zombies I see in the wild dont have a clue. They are puppets to/for the machine! I laugh and grieve in the same instance. 

 

Exactly bro :) I see also, everyday "zombies" walking in the street while they are seeing their phones :S I don't know what happen with the world

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